A billboard above Interstate 65 in Clark County proclaims the adult superstore Theatair X to be “The Pride of Clarksville.”
The town government doesn’t seem to think so: Last week, a Clark County Circuit Court judge affirmed the Town of Clarksville’s suspension of the adult store’s license, saying the business was “willfully ignorant” of public sex acts that were occurring on its property and that there was ample evidence that the store had known its license was suspended while it continued to operate.
Now, the property appears to be turning into another adult entertainment business, the slyly named Clarksville Ministries LLC, according to an attorney representing the town, Greg Fifer. The town is currently reviewing Clarksville Ministries’ application for a license.
LEO called Theatair X and one of its attorneys for comment, but neither have responded.
Theatair X’s current legal troubles started in 2018 when the Clarksville building commissioner performed an inspection of the property and found more than 20 “glory holes” between Theatair X’s peep show booths in order to allow “sex acts between people in adjoining booths,” according to Judge Vicki Carmichael’s order.
Clarksville’s building commissioner issued an order suspending Theatair X’s license after the store failed to cover up the “glory holes,” telling the store to immediately cease operations. The notice was sent by mail to the business and by email to its attorney.
The attorney, David Mosley, responded to the building commissioner asking for guidance on how to repair the booths.
“Greg, If you can tell me, exactly as you can, what the town wants done to ‘permanently close’ the openings. In the past X has put metal plates over the openings but these get whittled off or pulled off,” Mosley wrote.
But, the store continued to operate, according to Carmichael’s order — despite its license suspension. It did, however, repair the “glory holes” to the building commissioner’s satisfaction, and the town of Clarksville lifted the license suspension.
After applying for a license renewal in 2019, Clarksville police officers arrested and charged patrons for public indecency and public nudity inside Theatair X’s two theater rooms. A man and woman were allegedly seen having sex in the middle of the theater, and two other patrons were openly masturbating.
Clarksville police have recorded other sexual incidents at Theatair X, including one in 2018 when a Theatair X patron allegedly touched an undercover cop in a sexual way against his will, according to testimony by Clarksville Police Det. Kevin Conklin. When Conklin, who was there, asked a Theatair X employee to unlock the theater door, he said the employee shook the door “loud enough that everyone in the theater could hear it” as a “warning sign to the customer.”
Nine days after the 2019 incident, Clarksville’s building commissioner issued another notice of intent to revoke Theatair X’s license for operating while suspended and allowing sex acts on the premise.
Midwest Entertainment Ventures, the company behind Theatair X, argued against the revocation, saying it was never provided with notice of its initial license suspension. MEV also said there was no evidence of illegal activities at its business, and it shouldn’t be held responsible if people were having sex on their property without their knowledge.
In her order, Carmichael said that there was “ample evidence” that MEV knew of its suspension and that, “The long history of arrests for sex acts inside the premises gave MEV a ‘strong suspicion of wrongdoing’ on its premises, and yet despite those strong suspicions MEV purposefully facilitated sexual acts by configuring its booths and theaters outside of the visibility of its employees (and others) to provide privacy for those sexual acts. These deliberate efforts distinguish its conduct from mere negligence in discovering the truth.
Fifer, Clarkville’s attorney on the case, said that the town is also attempting to impose around $770,000 in fines on Midwest Entertainment Ventures. The company’s license is also now suspended for one year, although it appears to have sold the building anyway.